.... Alluring, romantic, and surprising, Charleston is incomparable always, but especially during the annual Spoleto USA festival. Subscribers eagerly return year after year, not just for the concerts, opera, theater, dance, and art exhibits, but for Charleston itself at its most charming and lively. Days and nights are a sensual feast.

Twenty-seven years old this year, Spoleto Festival USA brings performers from all over the world to the 333-year-old city on the peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper rivers. For those who wish to travel no farther afield, this is a reasonable sampler of the world's cultural bounty.

This year's festival, which runs from May 23 to June 8, includes the National Ballet of Canada; the Gate Theatre of Dublin; flamenco dancers from Spain; the work of Shen Wei, a Chinese dancer and choreographer now based in New York; and that of Yasmeen Godder, an Israeli choreographer. A Brazilian jazz singer; a puppeteer from the Republic of Georgia; and a European-style, one-act circus round out the international bill, accompanied, of course, by many US performers, known and unknown.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Old friends and new productions highlight this year's Spoleto Festival U.S.A., which on Friday opens a 27th season of art, music and drama at venues around this seaside city. "The trick of doing a festival is to balance things during a season, but also part of the trick is to balance things over time," said general director Nigel Redden. "We want to make it as special and as unique as possible." Spoleto's 17-day run opens with the traditional round of speeches and music on the steps of Charleston City Hall. In all, there will be more than 120 performances between Friday and the June 8 finale at Middleton Place on the Ashley River.

The event is the American counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi, or Festival of Two Worlds, in Spoleto, Italy. That festival runs from June 27 to July 13 this year.

CHARLESTON, S.C., June 1 — By some mix of coincidence, prescience and last-minute refinement, Chas Rader-Shieber's production of Handel's "Tamerlano" at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. here seems, as they say, ripped from the headlines. <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/02/arts/music/02SPOL.html target=_blank>more</a>

CHARLESTON, S.C.--There are times during the annual Spoleto Festival of the arts--which began May 23 and runs through Sunday--when it seems as if every theater, concert hall, gallery, library and church altar in this city has been commandeered by performing and visual artists of one sort or another. And to a large extent they have been. <a href=http://www.suntimes.com/output/weiss/cst-ftr-stage05.html target=_blank>more</a>

Charleston festival rebounds to new peak By PIERRE RUHE and WENDELL BROCK for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Despite the worst economy in years and those ominous code orange terrorist alerts, the Spoleto Festival USA has never been more popular.

The 27-year-old multi-arts festival, which dominates the historic town of Charleston, S.C., for 17 days each summer, concluded June 8. The 2003 edition set a record for ticket sales, earning $2.5 million. According to festival organizers, about half its 120 performances were sold out.

The 2003 figure tops the previous high of $2.27 million, set in what now seems like the idyllic summer of 2001.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum